Last week’s awards season is over, free agency is underway, and trades can happen at any time. This coming week teams and players face some key decisions that will have an impact on the 2026 season. The week then ends up with the owners holding their quarterly meetings where they could develop a strategy for negotiating a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
Tuesday, November 18: Qualifying Offer (QO) Decisions
Players who were given qualifying offers – a one-year deal worth $22.025-million – must decide whether to accept or decline the offer by 4 p.m. on Tuesday. If they accept, they are considered signed for one year and can not be traded until June 15 without their consent. If the player declines the offer then their original team will get draft pick compensation if the player winds up signing elsewhere. The draft pick comes from the team that signed them and in some cases, the signing team may have to fork over multiple draft picks or international bonus money. Don’t hold your breath waiting for Kyle Schwarber to accept the qualifying offer. He will be getting more money and more years than the QO provides.
Tuesday, November 18: Teams must file their “reserve lists”
The term “reserve lists” refers basically to an updated 40-man roster that includes any prospects they have added to the roster to protect them from being taken in next month’s Rule 5 Draft. Yes, the Phillies will protect Andrew Painter, and probably Felix Reyes, too. There could well be others. One thing to look out for; teams often need to clear room on their 40-man roster for prospects and sometimes make deals to move those players off of the roster. On occasion, they also trade prospects who they can’t fit onto their roster rather than risk losing them in the Rule 5 Draft.
PROTECT ME! Who the Phillies risk losing if they are not added to the 40-man roster
Tuesday through Thursday (November 18-20): I wish I was a fly on the wall
The owners meetings take place in New York City. You have to figure that the new CBA is going to be discussed. It expires after the 2026 season and the owners figure to want to spend time putting together a strategy and mapping out how and when they want to get down to negotiating. There could be other business about stadium issues in Las Vegas and Tampa and some other issues to discuss.
Friday, November 21: Non-tender deadline
The teams face another deadline. This is the deadline to offer pre-arbitration and arbitration eligible players a contract for 2026. If they don’t offer a player a contract for next season, they are considered “non-tendered” and instantly become a free agent. If they are offered a contract, the two sides have until mid-January to work out an official deal that may or may not be for more than just the 2026 season. Agreeing to a deal before mid-January avoids the two sides going to arbitration. If they can’t come to an agreement then the two sides exchange salary demands and they head in front of an arbitrator just before spring training. Again, this can lead to some potential trades. For instance, if the Phillies decide that Alec Bohm would get too much in his final year of arbitration and they won’t manage to sign him, they could possibly trade him before the deadline and let his new team deal with it all.
Down the road
In early December, the competitive balance draft picks will be assigned for teams that are in the bottom 10 in revenue and/or market size. The Hall of Fame’s Contemporary Baseball Committee will announce their choices for the Hall on December 7. That same day, the Winter Meetings start in Orlando as GMs, agents, and players all gather to spend and get boatloads of money.
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